Jose Cervantes, left, and Cutberto Martinez lay out a pattern of tile to be installed around a statue of St. Joseph in the lobby of Sagrado Corazón Hispanic Ministry Center on Thursday, Jan. 11. Members of Sagrado Corazón volunteered to install the tile on the floors outside of the main church, which is located at the Catholic Pastoral Center in Nashville. New tilework and carpeting are among the remodeling and repair projects under way to prepare the CPC to host the episcopal ordination and installation of Bishop-elect Mark Spalding planned for Feb. 2. Photo by Rick Musacchio

The ordination and installation of Bishop-elect J. Mark Spalding as the 12th Bishop of Nashville on Friday, Feb. 2, will not only be a celebration for the new bishop, but a launch for the Catholic Pastoral Center where the event will be held.

Several remodeling, renovation and repair projects at the Center, which have long been planned, have been pushed up to complete them in time for the ordination and installation, said Brian Cooper, the assistant to Diocesan Administrator Father Michael Johnston.

“The overarching theme is one of celebration both for the new bishop and the new beginning that brings, but also for the formal launching of the Catholic Pastoral Center,” said Cooper, who was hired late last year to help prepare the Center and the diocese for its new bishop.

The announcement that Bishop-elect Spalding would be ordained a bishop and installed as the Bishop of Nashville on Feb. 2 at the Sagrado Corazón Hispanic Ministry Center worship space at the Catholic Pastoral Center put “a stake in the ground,” to determine the timing of several significant improvement projects, Cooper said.

Among the improvements are about 20,000 square feet of new flooring on the first level of the Center. The project included replacing carpet with new carpet squares, which can be easily replaced if they become stained or damaged, Cooper said.

As part of the flooring project, the Sagrado Corazón congregation has contributed to the project to do part of the hallways outside the worship space with ceramic tile. “We worked with Father (David) Ramirez to come up with the design we have,” Cooper said of the diocesan director of Hispanic Ministry.

Parishioners from Sagrado Corazón, which is a Spanish-speaking congregation, have volunteered to do the tile work and some painting.

Other projects have included replacing and improving the lighting in the building, landscaping, and converting a courtyard into the Bishop’s Garden, which will include a new cross donated by Hunt Memorial, Cooper said.

Bishop-elect Spalding will bless and dedicate the new cross when it is installed, Cooper said.

The commercial kitchen in the building has been cleaned, repaired and revitalized.

In all the projects, diocesan staff have tried to be good stewards of the diocese’s resources, Cooper said. “We’ve looked at everything very carefully in terms of costs and benefits,” he said. “We’ve had very gracious partners to keep costs down, which we’re grateful for.”

As an example, Cooper noted, the flooring work will cost less than $35,000, Cooper said.

The improvements will prepare the building for Bishop-elect Spalding’s ordination, but their impact will stretch far beyond that date, Cooper said.

“It goes way beyond the day of the celebration,” he said. “The legacy will live on for years. And we’ll be able to leverage the improvements.”

Caterers will use the revamped commercial kitchen for the reception after the ordination, but it won’t be a one-time use, Cooper said. “We’ll have that for all types of future events and activities.”

The kitchen isn’t the only part of the building that has been improved that will be used on the day of the ordination. The Sagrado Corazón worship space, which seats more than 3,000 people, will be the location of the ordination Mass, and the reception that follows will be held in the Catholic Pastoral Center’s auditorium, gymnasium and the Bishop’s Garden, where a tent will be put up, Cooper said.

The event will be an opportunity to showcase the Catholic Pastoral Center for the people of the diocese, Cooper said.

The diocese purchased the facility, which is located on McGavock Pike across Briley Parkway from the Opryland Hotel, from the Fellowship at Two Rivers in 2014. The diocese moved its offices, including the Sagrado Corazón Hispanic Ministry Center, from several locations to the new Catholic Pastoral Center. Catholic Charities of Tennessee also relocated its offices to the Center.

Although the Catholic Pastoral Center has been in use for several years, many people from the diocese who will be attending the bishop’s ordination will be seeing the facility for the first time, Cooper said.

“We look forward to showcasing the building,” Cooper said. “We want people to see all the possibilities of how they can use it. The people of the diocese will be able to see what its potential is to do good, to help with our pastoral mission for those less fortunate, for educational purposes, and for youth and schools. …

“That’s why we moved here,” he added. “That’s the vision of why we bought this.”

Having the ordination at the Catholic Pastoral Center rather than the Cathedral of the Incarnation allows the diocese to take advantage of the size of Sagrado Corazón to accommodate more people, the onsite parking, the relative ease of access to the airport for those flying here for the ordination and to the highway for those driving, and the numerous hotels in the area, Cooper said. “It makes it the obvious choice.”